The Rimfire Report: Mossad’s Deadly Legacy with Beretta Model 71

Hello everyone and welcome back to another edition of The Rimfire Report! This ongoing series is all about the rimfire firearm world and its many types of guns, ammo, shooting sports, and history! On a recent trip out to Texas, I had the pleasure of meeting with the good guys from the 9 Hole Reviews YouTube channel. Henry of 9 Hole was kind enough to bring out not just one, but two Beretta Model 71 pistols that I had been curious about for quite a while from my work with the Beretta 21A Bobcat. While at the range, I had a chance to get a close look at the guns, and also shoot them in various suppressed and unsuppressed configurations. The Model 71 is essentially Beretta’s larger variant of the 21A Bobcat but unlike the Bobcat, the Model 71 actually has a fairly lethal history, specifically with the Israeli Mossad. Today we’ll talk a bit about the pistol, and some of its uses throughout the years.

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The Rimfire Report: Mossad’s Deadly Legacy with Beretta Model 71

Like other Beretta pistols, the Model 71 has a feline moniker – the Jaguar. However, the Jaguar is probably more well known by its Model 71 designation. The pistol featured a fixed barrel design chambered in .22LR and was designed from the ground up to be an extremely compact self-defense weapon for police and civilians. The Model 71 was yet another in-house design tackled by Beretta engineer Tullio Marengoni, who also worked on the Beretta M1918 submachine gun and the semi-auto Model 948 9mm pistol.

The Model 71, like its smaller Bobcat cousin, is a single-action blowback-operated handgun. The Jaguar is, however, noticeably larger than the Bobcat, and it feels much better in the hand as well. While the Bobcat feels too small in virtually anyone’s hand, the Model 71 features a much larger grip comparable to a modern-day compact pistol. The grip dimensions combined with the nearly one-pound weight of the firearm, a straight-back trigger pull, and its small dimensions make for a very comfortable shooting experience.

The Model 71 works a lot like most any other single-action only firearm, but it does however feature an oddly placed magazine release, fairly crude iron sights, and worst of all, the pistol’s discontinuaton gives collectors a high asking price even for models in poor condition. While the handgun was priced right around $275 upon release in 1958, a modern collector can expect to pay anywhere from $500 to $1,300 for a working Model 71. But why exactly is the Model 71 pistol so popular now after its discontinuation in 1985?

The Jaguar In Real Life – Operation Wrath of God

While there was a bunch of controversy at this year’s Summer Olympics, the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics is one of the worst in memory with disguised members of the Black September group infiltrating the Olympic Village, taking 11 Israeli hostages, and killing two in the process. The whole purpose of taking the hostages was leverage for demanding the release of 234 Palestinian and Arab prisoners being held by Israel that Black September wanted to be released.

In a quick response to the killings and hostage-taking, the German police partially acquiesced to the terrorist’s demands and set up an ambush at the nearby Fürstenfeldbruck airfield. The terrorists quickly realized they were being set up for an ambush and a very deadly shootout ensued in which all 11 Israeli hostages, 5 of the 8 terrorists, and one German police officer were killed in the chaos. While the remaining terrorists were captured, on the whole, this can’t be looked at in any other way but as an operational failure.

Swearing retribution on those who were deemed directly responsible for the attacks, primarily members of Black September as well as targets associated with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). These targets were hunted down between 1972 and the early 1990s with many of these targeted, covert assassinations using the Model 71 as the primary tool.

Mossad Methodology with the Model 71

While those familiar with the Model 71 will likely know it as a great suppressor host, many of the situations in which the Mossad used the Model 71 didn’t include the use of a suppressor. Most of the time when Mossad agents were carrying the Model 71, it was being employed as a deep concealment backup weapon.

One notable story that gives us good insight into how Mossad actually used the weapon comes from one of the very first successful Wrath of God operations. The intended target was Wael Zwaiter who was suspected of having direct involvement and ties with Black September and the Munich Olympics attack. While Zwaiter was in Rome, two Mossad agents tailed him and covertly assassinated him in his apartment stairwell by shooting him at point-blank range with 12 rounds of 22LR. We know that both agents fired shots and it’s likely that one or both agents ran out of ammunition as these pistols can only hold a total of 9 rounds each. The agents essentially “mag dumped” the target at close range.

While a “mag dump” isn’t typically seen as a precision tool of execution, the methodology lines up with not just the Beretta Model 71’s strong points, it also accounts for mission flexibility for agents. Even though suppressed shots from a 22LR pistol aren’t dead quiet, my experiences on the range tell me that even emptying a magazine from as close as 50 yards turns into background noise when normal conversation is taking place. Emptying the entire magazine makes sense if you’ve only got one target, and due to .22LR’s inherent lack of single-shot lethality, the other 7 or 8 rounds make up for the difference.

The Model 71 ultimately stands out for me as a morbidly interesting rimfire gun because we don’t typically have a lot of actual field data about 22LR being used against targets. I suppose that’s also why it’s become somewhat of a hot collector’s item – it’s an interesting firearm that found its use by one of the most widely known intelligence groups with a track record for being lethally efficient.

I’d like to hear your thoughts on this one. What do you guys think of the Beretta Model 71 and also its use by the Israeli Mossad? As always thanks for stopping by to read The Rimfire Report and we’ll see you again next week!